Friday, November 20, 2009

Global Warming: A Classic Case of AlarmismThe global temperature has been rising at a steady trend rate of 0.5°C per century since the end of the little ice age in the 1700s (when the Thames River would freeze over every winter; the last time it froze over was 1804). On top of the trend are oscillations that last about thirty years in each direction:

In 2009 we are where the green arrow points, with temperature leveling off. The pattern suggests that the world has entered a period of slight cooling until about 2030.

There was a cooling scare in the early 1970s at the end of the last cooling phase. The current global warming alarm is based on the last warming oscillation, from 1975 to 2001. The IPCC predictions simply extrapolated the last warming as if it would last forever, a textbook case of alarmism. However the last warming period ended after the usual thirty years or so, and the global temperature is now definitely tracking below the IPCC predictions.

So there you have it. How much more do we need to discuss this? In ten years you will hear the scientists saying that all the "damage" we've done has over balanced the system causing cooling. Mark my words.

So if you want to believe the planet is doomed, go ahead. You'll get more donations for your cause, or money for your technologies to prevent it. It's a classic "the sky is falling" and you have to do something about it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Business Week rates the Best Place to Raise Your Kids. This review is why you should immediate cancel you subscription to this magazine. And this article is a good example why magazine readership has declined and will continue to decline.

Lawton, the highest-ranked city in the state for the second year in a row, is 90 miles from Oklahoma City in the southwest part of the state, just north of the Fort Sill Army post. The area has 22,400 acres of wildlife habitat and many lakes that are good for fishing and boating.

Seriously?Has this reporter ever been to Lawton? How about any city in Oklahoma? Did this reporter ever even look at a map? I'm certain he didn't consult any actual statistics in his criteria areas on Oklahoma.

First, the picture is of Oklahoma City's Bricktown Canal. Oklahoma City is 85 miles from Lawton, 15 miles from Moore and 10 miles from Midwest City.Second, a mom with kids in towels? There is NO SWIMMING in the canal. Matter of fact the only swimming in Bricktown is in the hotel swimming pools.Third, Lawton is SOUTH of Fort Sill not North as the article says.Fourth, The nearest city. The nearest city a non-Oklahoman would recognize is Oklahoma City. There are closer cities, just none you've ever heard of.

Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2007: 19.9% (10.0% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 30.2% for Black residents)

What city with a declining population is a good place to raise kids? The only reason this number is not higher is families that want to live off base have only a few options in this part of the state. Why are people leaving? In this example it is directly because Lawton is a crap hole of a dirty town. Check out those poverty scores. One in five live in poverty, nearly one in three for Black families. AWESOME! Moore's population has increased 29.2% in the same period. And the percentage below the poverty line in Moore and Midwest City is in the single digits. Either Moore or Midwest City would have been a better selection than Lawton. Moore's population grow can be explained by its location in Cleveland county and the people leaving Oklahoma City's really poor school system.

Moore and Midwest City. I cannot name a single museum in either of those cities. This was a major criteria for selection. Both of those cities locations share the same "lakes and rivers". One of which is fondly name Lake Dirty Bird (Lake Thunderbird) for it's red colored water most of the year. The other, Lake Stanley Draper, is famous for the bodies that are found in it from gang killings in Midwest City and Del City. Neither city has a significant park system or any serious kind of recreation activities unless drinking and shopping in big box stores are recreational activities.

Crime.Lawton is not as a “crime free” as the article would have you believe. And the federal government agrees. According to the FBI, Lawton’s violent crime rate is .76%, and property crime rate is 5.46%. Compare that with Norman, .19% for violent crime and 3.18% for property crime, Owasso, .24% for violent crime and 2.76% for property crime, and Jenks, a whopping .027% for violent crime and 1.05% for property crime.

As stated by one of the commenters to the article, who lives in Lawton, "every other business in Lawton is either a strip club or bar". You can go to Google Street view and confirm that or just take it from me, that he ain't off by much. Lawton and Midwest City are both considered highly gang infested cities. The only redeeming feature of these cities is their locations to employment centers, Fort Sill Army Base (Lawton), Tinker Air Force Base (Midwest City), and Oklahoma City (Moore).

Schools.In the last 15 years the city of Moore has only passed one school bond election. Most people that can afford to leave Moore move to Norman for the schools. People leave Midwest City for smaller towns like Jones or Choctaw. Lawton schools are only rivaled by Oklahoma City for their complete mismanagement.

I highly recommend you look at the Comments Section of the article. This guys missed way more times than he hit. Some samples from the article come from another discussion of the article on Red Dirt Kings where we have been beating up on this piss poor excuse for an editor and reporter.

Lawton? Have you ever been to Oklahoma? No offense but Lawton is a military base in the waste lands of SW OK. Come on guys, do you homework. Nice pic of OKC though. From the comments, seems like you haven’t used many pics from the actual town…nice!!!

These composite photos are laughable. Not only have they been slapped together with little or no skill but they are often photos of the wrong town. Very impersonal feel.

No one has mentioned that Tinley Park, Il. is an extremely racist community and your kids will grow up to be RACISTS!!!

Lawton, OK ??? I can’t wait to leave here. I’m hoping it is before my daughter is school age! This town is full of gangs, bars and strip clubs. Not to mention the school system is horrible as well as crime rates.

Lawton? Really?… Was there not a shread{sic} of research done about crime rates in thesee{sic} cities? Please.

Some other fun ones:

By the way, whoever pasted the picture of the black kid in Idaho has obviously never been to Idaho… (wow)

I guess Alabama or Georgia would be a good place to raise your kids if you want them to turn out to be a teabagging ultranationalist gun-nut.

Vegas is considered family friendly? I’m sorry, but strippers, crack, and gambling aren’t exactly what I would choose to have my kids grow up with. Every billboard and truck that drives by has a half-naked woman plastered on the side of it.

So who ever green lighted Mr. Prashant Gopal's piss poor attempt at an article should be fired. Any one who signed off on the fact checking for this article should be fired. And Mr. Gopal's press pass should be revoked.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

WASHINGTON – More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year.

In all, about 5 percent of spending in federal programs in fiscal year 2009 was improper, according to new details of a government financial report that were released Tuesday. Saying the overall error rate was similar in 2008, officials attributed the $26 billion jump to some changes in how to define improper spending as well as an increase in overall spending due to the recession.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order within the next week aimed at cracking down on government waste and fraud, particularly in Medicare and other benefit programs. In the 2009 report, the government officially reported questionable Medicare payments of roughly $36 billion, but that amount will be revised upward to about $48 billion next year as the Health and Human Services Department fully converts to a new methodology that imposes stricter documentation requirements.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who chairs a Senate panel on federal financial management, said he worried that the latest numbers "may still be just the tip of the iceberg" since they don't include estimates for several programs such as the Medicare prescription drug plan.

"It goes without saying that these results would be completely unacceptable in the private sector, as they should be in government, especially at a time of record deficits," Carper said.

Damn straight Tom. So if you are looking at the list of percentages, which department would you want your program run from? Hint: Which one has the least percentage of waste?

So when the government has control over the entire industry do you think there will be MORE or LESS corruption and questionable payments? Yeah. It will only get worse and I can tell you it will take even more bureaucrats to "monitor" the payments.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early Wednesday about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking.

I guess the pirates don't get a lot of CNN. They should be seeing more protection forces aboard vessels in the area. I'm sure they are wondering why it isn't as easy to hijack these ships.

Monday, November 16, 2009

MIAMI -- I received an important e-mail alert yesterday from the American Veterinary Medical Association with an alarming subject title -- similar to this story's "scary" headline.

Here's the content of the message:

Nov. 4, 2009 -- A 13-year-old cat in Iowa developed signs of a respiratory infection after several people in the household were ill. Preliminary testing was positive for 2009 H1N1 on October 29, and the results were confirmed on November 2. This is the first report of a cat infected with H1N1. The cat has recovered from its illness.

Yes kitty, you can haz H1N1. Just another reason to kill all the cats...everywhere. Standby for cat lovers everywhere to recommend you vaccinate YOUR CATs. I wonder how much Feline Tamiflu costs?

On the evening of Nov. 15, President Barack Obama, the youthful leader of one of the world's youngest countries, begins his first visit to China, among the world's most ancient societies. Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, have much to discuss. Nukes in Iran and North Korea. China's surging military spending. Trade imbalances. Climate change.

Could the world's lone but weary superpower actually learn something from China? It's a politically incorrect question, of course. China is an authoritarian nation; its ruling Communist Party deals ruthlessly with any challenge to its hegemony. It remains, relatively speaking, a poor, developing country with huge problems to confront, massive corruption and environmental degradation being Nos. 1 and 1a. Still, this is a moment of humility for the U.S., and China is doing some important things right. If the U.S. were to ask the Chinese what it could learn from their example, it might gain some insight into what it's doing right and wrong. Here are five lessons from China's success story:1. Be Ambitious2. Education Matters3. Look After the Elderly4. Save More5. Look over the Horizon

While I'm sure I could come up with at least 5 things China could learn from America, I find it interesting that while we have the most socialistic liberal president in office reporters are making comparisons and suggestions on how we could be come more like COMMUNIST CHINA. Awesome. Just say no. Better dead than red.

China has swallowed the poisoned pill of capitalism. It's only a matter of time before the whole country is consumed by it. Even the creator of Dilbert believes it.